Hot Topics:

Lunenburg is county's farming capital

By Katina Caraganis , kcaraganis@sentinelandenterprise.com

Updated:
04/07/2013 09:07:30 AM EDT

LUNENBURG -- As Garrett Stillman walked through the barn at Stillman Dairy Farm on Thursday afternoon, the faint smell of manure hung in the air as bottling machines hard at work hummed in the background.

Advertisement

Stillman said that while the future of the farm is never 100 percent certain, it's nice to know that his family's farm is part of a tradition in town.

"What the future holds and will look like remains to be seen. It's pretty neat to know what's going on here, especially when you think about the amount of history here," he said. "It's nice to see some of the smaller farms coming back to business. ... More people care about this now.

SENTINEL & ENTERPRISE photos / BRETT CRAWFORD
Garrett Stillman, 30, shows the dairy cows at his family's dairy farm in Lunenburg. He and his four siblings are fourth-generation farmers. By milking 40 cows per day, Stillman Dairy Farm provides flavored milk, and will soon expand to ice cream, cheese and yogurt. See slideshow at sentinelandenterprise.com.

"

Kip Graham, the county executive director for the Farm Service Agency in Holden, said Lunenburg is the most agriculturally diverse town in Worcester County.

"There aren't many towns in Worcester County with dairy farms, and Lunenburg has two. It's got a couple of commercial orchards, several vegetable growers, Christmas tree farms and livestock," he said. "I think they're very fortunate to have that."

The town needs to help highlight that variety, he said, including helping farmers start an agricultural commission.

"The town should take a lot of pride in its farmers and promote them," Graham said. "It's beneficial for the town to have a lot of open space. It enriches lots of people's lives.

Stillman and his four siblings are fourth-generation farmers. He said that as times change, he and his family have had to rework their business model not only to keep up with the times but to not lose business to other dairies.

The farm's 40 cows are milked twice a day, and allow the farm to make mostly flavored milks. He said the farm is expanding into other markets, including cheeses, ice cream and yogurt.

One of the biggest changes they've made, he said, was adding bottling facilities on site so they can expand their product offerings and sell on site.

Bottling also means the farm does not have to rely just on wholesaling its milk out, he said.

What we're producing, we're using here," he said while glancing around the farm's milk bottling plant. "When wholesale prices go down, you're getting less than what it takes to keep yourself in business. When prices go so low, that's when you see more dairies going out of business. We built our bottling plant in October 2000, and we built it to guarantee our own price. By bottling our own milk, there are some additional costs, but you get to set your own price and make up for it. There's no middleman now."

Stillman's father, Bud, who spends much of his time milking cows and other chores in the barn, said there once were more than 1,200 dairy farms in the state. Now there are fewer than 150.

"I'm not 100 percent sure of the future of the business," he said as he stood in the barn amid the cows in their stalls. Some lay on the hay-strewn floor, others munched on hay, drank water or mooed. "We've evolved over the years. We're branching out. I'm sure we'll still be here in the years to come."

Usually, cows are put out to pasture after their morning milking and are brought inside in time to be milked again at night, he said, but because it's mud season for farmers, the cows are generally kept inside until the fields dry more. When grass grows back in, Garrett Stillman said, the cows spend the day outside, grazing.

First-generation farmer

Hollis Hills Farm was started in 2009 by Jim Lattanzi and his wife, Allison. Lattanzi took up farming at age 10, when he raised chickens. He also delivered eggs to neighbors for a dollar a dozen.

As he got older, Lattanzi made hay, and eventually took his love of farming to a new level by purchasing cows. As his farm grew, Lattanzi said he saw the need for expanded farm service in town, including knowledge and specialized equipment.

His combined business of hay, beef, eggs, pork and maple syrup with the pasture management services allows him to remain successful.

The diversity of farms in Lunenburg is promising for the continued growth of the town.

"You can always do wheeling and dealing around town to get what you need," he said. "We've got a variety of soils here, and a lot of times when farmers are looking to farm, they choose the best type of agriculture for the type of soil they're working with. They have to work best with the soil."

He continued, "From the bottom land to the hillsides, a lot of farmers had diversity in what they could produce here. That diversity has allowed us to be a strong community. It's just awesome to think about."

Lattanzi is a first-generation farmer, but said it's nice for the older farms in town to know their hard work isn't being done in vain.

"Most people don't even realize just how agriculturally diverse this town is," he said, while noting the only things that aren't grown in Lunenburg are cranberries, barley, wheat and hops. "There are farms other places, but nothing like here. If you drive by Walmart in town, that whole complex used to be nothing but farmland. We need to do everything we can to protect what we have."

Lattanzi recently purchased 250 baby chicks, which he keeps in a big pen in his garage with warming lamps before moving them outside to larger pens. He said in about six weeks, the chicks will be large enough to sell as meat, and he expects to sell more than 1,000 this year.

Days don't come easy for Lattanzi and his wife. They both rise early to begin feeding animals, collecting eggs from the farm's chicken cook situated on hay bails for increased mobility, and fertilizing the pastures.

Once the farm work is finished, Lattanzi's day isn't complete. Driving through the main streets and back roads of town, it's hard not to notice the bright green, purple and clear plastic tubing running from maple tree to maple tree. Each tree is tapped with a black fixture, which is attached to the tubing. The tubing winds together an intricate maze of rope, all ending in a collection bucket nestled at the base of the trees.

Lattanzi drives through town in a pickup with an industrial-size collection tank in its bed. At each stop, he hooks up tubing attached to the barrel in the truck and connect it to similar tubing in the collection tanks. It's taken back to his sugar shack and processed into maple sugar.

Many farmers, he said, rely on their children or other younger generations to be up for the challenge of taking over the farm. While Lattanzi and his wife have no children, he said they've taken on high-school students as volunteers to learn about the process, and find out ways to be more involved in farming.

"If kids didn't think about where their food came from, or they didn't think about the future of the farms in this community, they're all going to go away in coming years," Lattanzi said, while noting that many current farmers are part of an aging population and are beginning to make plans for their futures, and the futures of their properties.

"If kids don't learn about this rich history now, they'll never know about it," he said. "Without someone pointing it out to them, they aren't getting it."

A Christmas crop

Dan Pierce of Pierce's Christmas Tree Farm worries about who will take over after he's gone. His three adult children, who live on the 80-plus-acre property with their own families, have no interest.

"You either like farming or you don't. I happen to love doing this line of work, but it isn't for everyone," he said. "When your heart and soul isn't in this, you either have to find someone else wishing to carry out your same vision, or you have to give in to a developer. That's not something I really ever want to do."

One of the biggest challenges to having a Christmas tree farm, he said, is the time it takes to get invested. He said while most farmers can plant a crop and see things grow shortly, it takes eight to 10 years for a tree to grow enough to be marketable.

"It takes new blood to keep it going. This farm has great potential to continue to be something great," he said while driving a pickup around the farm. "People make a day out of it when they come here from all over. They come and pick out a tree and have a picnic lunch in the parking lot and just get to meet new people. I don't want to see that go away."

He said he especially doesn't want to see that go away because of the rich history of not only his property but the farming history in the entire town. His father and grandfather both farmed in town as well. His farm, located on a hill, has thousands of trees planted.

"I think this is such a good thing for this town. I don't think people realize the rich history of farming in this town. There used to be hundreds of farms all over this town, and it's always frustrating to see them disappearing all the time," he said, while sitting at the highest point of the farm, overlooking the 50 acres of planted trees on the farm. "This is why people move to this town in the first place. They love driving through this town and seeing all the open space. If they wanted all of those houses and buildings, you can go to the city."

It's something that needs to be kept in town, he said, at whatever the cost. He said more and more farms in town are working with the state to put restrictions on their properties so that if it stops functioning as a working farm, it will stay as open space and no developments will take over the property.

"This is the best way to preserve the open space here. I want to see this farming community thrive and do well here. It can't be both types of communities. You either have to want to keep what you have, or you give up all your rights to developers," he said. "I believe this town has the best interest of its farmers in mind. They want to protect their farm lands. I want to see this stay as a farm. I don't want to come back here and see a bunch of houses."

Farming isn't for the weak of heart, or someone looking to do it as a side job, he said.

"This is definitely a full-time job. There's always something to be done when you own a farm. There's always something that needs fixing here," he said. "Farmers understand and appreciate the land. Most of the farms have existed for a long time. I think it's a good thing for the town to do."

Welcome to your discussion forum: Sign in with a Disqus account or your social networking account for your comment to be posted immediately, provided it meets the guidelines. (READ HOW.)
Comments made here are the sole responsibility of the person posting them; these comments do not reflect the opinion of The Sentinel and Enterprise. So keep it civil.